Should You Install a Radiant Barrier in a Cold Climate?

Radiant barriers have been historically popular in hot climates, but have been gaining a foothold in cooler climates. A home is a place where you want to keep air inside a certain temperature, and heat always moves from warm to cold. Heat flows out of your home in the winter, with the amount of heat determined by the difference in temperature inside and outside.

Walls do a decent job of reducing the loss of heat. The problem occurs in the attic, as most homes do not have an outer barrier on top of the insulation about the ceiling. A radiant barrier can help in cold climates by reducing radiant heat loss and minimizing convective air looping inside the insulation.

Have questions about radiant barriers? Get in touch with Utility Improvements at www.UtilityImprovements.com. 

How Radiant Barriers Work

You’ve probably heard a lot about radiant barriers, and how they can save you greatly on your energy bills. However, it might be confusing to understand how exactly they work.

Heat flows in three ways: conduction, radiation and convection, with the former two being the principal ways how heat flows into the home. Conduction is the flow of heat by physical contact. Radiation is heat in wave form that can be felt without actually needing to touch the source of heat. This radiant heat travels at a very fast rate until it is either reflected or absorbed.

Without a radiant barrier, your attic insulation can heat up to 130 degrees, and when this happens, your ceiling will act as if it is that temperature outside. To get comfortable, you’ll probably have to run the A/C at full blast, and this causes you to use a great deal of energy to suck out the heat.

A radiant barrier breaks the path to keep radiant heat from entering into your home, reflecting 97% of the radiant energy. In short, the radiant heat is back to where it came from, with no need to worry about the roof temperature increasing, and studies have show roofs with radiant barriers increase between only 2-10 degrees.

Need more information about radiant barriers? Contact Utility Improvements at www.UtilityImprovements.com.